Dice In The Darkness: Cthulhu Calls

Chapter 299: Moon Beast

 

Liu Xing could reasonably conclude that this circular space was most likely a sacrificial site constructed by a secret cult. After all, only a secret cult would go to such lengths to build a circular space underground, or rather, underwater.

So, if this circular space was indeed a sacrificial site, then the central area of the circular space should have an altar or some kind of magical array.

With this thought in mind, Liu Xing proceeded straight towards the central area of the circular space.

Sure enough, in the central area of the circular space, Liu Xing saw a massive magical array, and the materials used to draw this array emitted a familiar scent—the smell of blood.

"It seems like my guess was correct. This is indeed a site where this secret cult conducts sacrificial rituals. However, judging from this magical array, the secret cult that built this place doesn’t seem to be the Ocean True Deity Sect or the Deep Sea Gospel Society," Liu Xing muttered to himself.

Aside from some more common magical arrays, magical arrays used for sacrificial purposes like this one generally had distinct characteristics. For example, the magical arrays of the Deep Sea Gospel Society had abstract Deep One symbols around them, as well as some wave patterns representing the ocean.

However, the magical array under Liu Xing’s feet didn’t have these similar patterns and symbols. Instead, Liu Xing noticed some symbols that resembled Ancient Tribe totems.

Liu Xing furrowed his brow. If these unique symbols were indeed Ancient Tribe totems, could it be that the builders of this circular space were from some Ancient Tribe?

But this was an isolated island, and under normal circumstances, it would be impossible for a tribe to thrive here, especially to complete such a challenging underground construction.

After some thought, Liu Xing decided to contact KP Green Light. "KP, I want to perform a mystical judgment now to study this magical array."

KP Green Light chuckled and immediately replied, "Liu Xing, have you thought this through? To perform a mystical judgment on this magical array, you not only need to pass a difficult judgment but also spend an hour, as this place is quite dim."

Liu Xing raised an eyebrow and continued, "So, if I can fully illuminate this magical array, can I perform the judgment faster?"

"Of course, if you can completely illuminate this magical array, the time required will be reduced to forty minutes, and the success rate for the mystical judgment will only be lowered by 20%," KP Green Light said with a smile.

Liu Xing nodded and decided to temporarily leave the circular space. After all, he could only stay in this underground world for fifty minutes, and he couldn’t afford to waste all his time here. Besides, even if he could perform the mystical judgment, Liu Xing didn’t expect to gain much useful information, at most, it might reveal another new faction.

So, Liu Xing decided to take another round inside the circular space and then proceed to explore other areas.

Just as Liu Xing returned to the wall of the circular space, he suddenly saw a pile of bamboo slips inside the deity pot in front of him.

Seeing this, Liu Xing immediately reached out and took one of the bamboo slips and started reading it. However, he soon realized that he couldn’t understand the content of the bamboo slip.

Moreover, the most crucial thing was that Liu Xing could be certain that the writing on the bamboo slip was neither Chinese characters, Island Nation script, nor English or any other language he knew.

If he had to describe it, Liu Xing felt that the writing on the bamboo slip resembled pictograms, as many characters looked like drawings. Liu Xing vaguely remembered that some of these characters appeared in the magical array he had just seen.

Liu Xing understood that this magical array and the bamboo slips in his hand were probably related. Furthermore, the bamboo slips indirectly confirmed that the underground world of Fisher’s Village had been constructed by an Ancient Tribe, as pictograms were a significant characteristic of Ancient Tribes.

However, this raised the question of how an Ancient Tribe could exist on this small island, especially one that could accomplish such a highly challenging underground project.

Liu Xing sighed, took photos of the content on the bamboo slips with his phone, and then put the bamboo slips back in their original place before continuing along the edge of the circular space.

After a few more steps, Liu Xing noticed a Bronze Gate directly across from the entrance to the circular space. Initially, he hadn’t seen the Bronze Gate because its color was similar to the surrounding walls.

On this Bronze Gate, Liu Xing spotted a lock, which was rather small and reminded him of the key that Panda Pig had found earlier.

Liu Xing took a photo of the lock on the Bronze Gate to compare it with the key later. However, he was now very curious about what might be behind this Bronze Gate.

Continuing forward, Liu Xing eventually reached the entrance of the circular space again but didn’t make any other discoveries.

Therefore, Liu Xing retraced his steps and returned to the three-way intersection.

This time, Liu Xing decided to take the middle path because, without any surprises, it should lead to Dogo Aige’s grass hut.

He advanced along this path, feeling like he had walked a considerable distance, yet the road ahead remained endless.

After walking for a while longer, it was still the same.

Liu Xing realized that something seemed off. Based on his walking speed, he had already covered more than a thousand meters since entering the middle path. In theory, he should have not only passed Dogo Aige’s grass hut by now but also be underwater.

This made Liu Xing suspect that he might be experiencing the phenomenon known as "hitting a wall."

In simple terms, hitting a wall occurs when a person loses their sense of direction due to being in a relatively dark environment and lacking proper reference points, leading to getting lost.

From a scientific perspective, it’s related to the inherent traits of living organisms. Most creatures, including humans, tend to move in a circular path when deprived of vision, as their two feet or wings are not perfectly identical. This results in minor inconsistencies, which accumulate into significant errors over time, forming a closed circular path.

Of course, the situation Liu Xing was currently facing could also be due to the middle path not being perfectly straight but having a certain degree of curvature, eventually forming a relatively closed circular path.

So, Liu Xing decided to contact KP Green Light, "KP, I want to perform an inspiration judgment now to determine if I’ve hit a wall or if there’s something wrong with this path."

KP Green Light thought for a moment and then spoke, "Well, I can clarify this for you without going through the formal process. You haven’t encountered a ’hitting a wall’ situation, and there’s nothing wrong with this path. You’ve been using a flashlight all along, so if there were any issues, you would have noticed them by now."

Liu Xing raised an eyebrow, surprised that KP Green Light was straightforward and gave him the answer directly.

However, KP Green Light was correct. Upon closer examination, Liu Xing realized that there didn’t seem to be any issues with the path. Moreover, he had been hugging the edge of the road, so if the path had a significant curvature, he should have been aware of it.

As for the concept of "hitting a wall," Liu Xing found it unscientific and unrelated to the Cthulhu RPG Game, so he dismissed it.

Therefore, Liu Xing considered two possibilities:

The first possibility was that this path was indeed as long as it seemed and extended underwater like the right path.

The second possibility was that he had entered a magical array or had fallen under a magical influence, causing him to experience an illusion. After all, this was the world of the Cthulhu RPG Game, and Liu Xing believed it was necessary to consider magical and supernatural factors.

With these thoughts in mind, Liu Xing pinched himself to check if he was under any magical influence. Feeling the pain, he ruled out the second possibility.

In reality, Liu Xing leaned towards the first possibility. Given the precedent set by the right path, he believed that the middle path could also lead deep into the sea.

So, Liu Xing checked the time on his phone and realized he had been underground for twenty minutes. To be safe, he decided to continue walking for another five minutes. If he didn’t find any results, he would turn back.

After walking a few more steps, Liu Xing made a new discovery. On the walls on both sides of the path, there were numerous murals drawn with white powder.

The murals depicted humans engaged in activities such as hunting, planting, and cooking. As Liu Xing continued forward, the scenes in the murals transitioned to depict warfare and sacrificial rituals.

In the war scenes, the camp of the mural artist was armed with strange weapons, easily defeating enemies wielding spears and clubs. However, what shocked Liu Xing even more was that the sacrificial scenes depicted were not blood sacrifices, as he initially thought. The people on the magical array seemed to be bound, but this was likely the same sacrificial site as the circular space on the right.

In the subsequent murals, a priest-like figure, after reciting some sort of ritual, approached the Bronze Gate with a key. Upon opening the Bronze Gate with the key, a terrifying group of Monsters poured out from it and dragged the people from the magical array into the Bronze Gate.

These Monsters had pale, eyeless, frog-like bodies with wide mouths and clawed hands. Instead of noses, they had short tentacles in the nasal area.

Liu Xing immediately recognized them as Moon Beasts!

Moon Beasts were mythical creatures with high intelligence. Besides their appearance in the murals, Moon Beasts possessed the ability to freely change their body shapes.

They resided on the dark side of the moon in the Dreamrealm. Speaking of Dreamrealm, it was a parallel dimension formed by subconscious and imaginative thoughts, with vastly different physical laws compared to reality. Dreamrealm was inhabited by numerous mythical creatures, and Moon Beasts were just one of them.

To enter Dreamrealm, humans could conveniently do so through dreaming or by firmly believing in Dreamrealm’s existence, becoming "dreamers." They could also enter through small rifts in Ghoul caves. There were even rumors that certain tree forests in the real world were connected to the Enchanted Forest in Dreamrealm. Other gates to alternate dimensions might also be linked to Dreamrealm.

Therefore, many modules in the Cthulhu RPG Game took place in Dreamrealm, like the Blood Soup module Liu Xing had previously experienced with Zhang Jingxu.

Speaking of the Blood Soup module, Liu Xing was curious about what had happened to his remaining teammates after he was "killed."

Returning to the main topic, unlike the moon in the real world, the moon in Dreamrealm had extensive forests and oceans. Moon Beasts, living there, fed on living creatures, extracting a unique substance from their bodies and souls as sustenance.

Moon Beasts were highly adaptable, capable of surviving in various climates and environments. They used advanced technology to expand their territories. As a result, Moon Beast colonies could potentially be found almost anywhere, whether in the real world or Dreamrealm. For instance, based on photos taken by the Apollo 11 spacecraft, there could be a Moon Beast colony on the dark side of the moon in the real world.

Apart from colonies, Moon Beasts were involved in slave trading in Dras-Lynn Port, an important city in Dreamrealm. They traded rubies for slaves and gold. Due to Dreamrealm’s unique properties, Moon Beast slaves came from various places and races in the universe, but Moon Beasts mostly preferred humans as slaves.

Moon Beasts spent a significant amount of time torturing and tormenting their slaves, deriving cruel pleasure from their suffering. What was even more crucial was that Moon Beasts used mental Magic Spells to control their slaves, preventing them from resisting. Thus, the fate of creatures enslaved by Moon Beasts was exceptionally grim, with no hope of escape.

In the subsequent murals, Moon Beasts placed peculiar objects on the magical array, and under the priest’s supervision, they opened the Bronze Gate. A horde of horrifying Monsters poured out and dragged the people from the magical array into the Bronze Gate.

Seeing this, Liu Xing finally understood some things.

Firstly, the underground world of Fisher’s Village was indeed constructed by an Ancient Tribe, which had formed some kind of cooperation with Moon Beasts. The Bronze Gate served as a passage to Dreamrealm.

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